Essiac Tea

The following text is an excerpt from the excellent book “Cancer Step Out of the Box” by Ty Bollinger. Reproduced here, with his kind permission.

My grandmother, Helen Cade, “Mama Helen” as we all affectionately called her, was the church visitor for Castle Hills First Baptist Church in San Antonio for over 40 years

“She and my mom had been two of the 18 charter members of the church way back in 1952. (The church now has over 10,000 members.) As the church visitor, Mama Helen’s job was to travel to hospitals and visit sick people … dying people … injured people. I remember traveling with her; and everywhere she went, to everyone she met, she would say, “ Honey, do you know Jesus ?” And then she would proceed to give them one of her “pet rocks” on which was painted “Jesus Loves You;” then she would tell them about Jesus’ death and resurrection. What a woman she was! I can only guess that there are literally thousands of souls in heaven as a direct result of Mama Helen’s witness for Jesus.

Mama Helen was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1988. I’m not sure where she learned of it, but almost immediately she began to brew her own Essiac Tea. I remember going to her house in San Antonio and helping her make the tea, fill those amber bottles, and stick them in the fridge. She drank it faithfully, almost as faithfully as she shared the gospel with everyone she met. I say almost as faithfully because I honestly don’t know of anything that she did more faithfully than share the gospel. Anyway, Mama Helen lived another 10 years with her terminal cancer, largely as a result of taking Essiac Tea, in my opinion. I’m not sure why, but she had stopped drinking the tea about two years before she died.

Back in 1922, a Canadian nurse named Rene Caisse noticed some scar tissue on the breast of an elderly woman. The woman told her that doctors had diagnosed her with breast cancer years before. However, the woman didn’t want to risk surgery, nor did she have the money for it. Providentially, she had met an old Indian medicine man who told her that he could cure her cancer with an herbal tea. The woman proceeded to tell Caisse about the ingredients in the tea. About a year later, Caisse was walking beside a retired doctor who pointed to a common weed and stated, “ Nurse Caisse, if people would use this weed there would be little or no cancer in the world .” This “weed” (sheep sorrel) was one of the herbs in the medicine man’s formula. The doctor had watched his horse cure itself of cancer by repeatedly grazing in a particular part of the pasture where sheep sorrel grew.

In 1924, Caisse wanted to test the tea on her aunt who had been diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer and was given less than six months to live. Caisse asked the physician, Dr. R. O. Fisher, for permission to try the tea on her aunt, and he consented. Her aunt drank the herbal tea daily for two months and recovered. Amazingly, she lived for 20 more years! Caisse also tested the tea on her mother who had been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer and had been given less than two months to live. Remarkably, her mother lived another 18 years!

Dr. Fisher and nurse Caisse immediately began treating cancer patients with the magic tea, which she eventually named “ Essiac ,” which is “ Caisse ” spelled backwards. She healed thousands of terminal cancer victims with Essiac in her clinic between the mid 1920s and the late 1930s. At the height of her involvement, Caisse saw up to 600 patients a week . The majority of those whom she treated came on referral with letters from their physicians certifying they had incurable or terminal forms of cancer and that they had been given up by the medical profession as untreatable. It was typical for Nurse Caisse to give her patients the Essiac treatment at no cost.

After word of her impressive results spread to the United States, a leading diagnostician in Chicago introduced Caisse to Dr. John Wolfer, director of the tumor clinic at Northwestern University Medical School. In 1937, Wolfer arranged for Caisse to treat 30 terminal cancer patients under the direction of five doctors. She commuted from Canada across the border to Chicago, carrying her bottles of freshly prepared herbal brew. After supervising 18 months of Essiac therapy, the Chicago doctors concluded that the herbal mixture “ prolonged life, shrank tumors, and relieved pain .” So effective were her free treatments that in 1938 her supporters gathered 55,000 signatures for a petition to present to the Ontario legislature to make Essiac Tea an official cancer treatment. She fell three votes short.

Caisse was not aware of the vast influence of Big Pharma and Big Medicine, which were (and still are) more interested in making money than in helping people. Essiac was cheap and non-toxic. It could cut into the huge lucrative profits generated from the “Big 3.” Caisse constantly played cat and mouse with Canadian federal health officials. They demanded clinical tests, but she stubbornly refused to divulge her formula unless she got official assurance that Essiac would not be lost to the people who needed it, since her primary loyalty was to the people who had come to depend on her. The authorities couldn’t give her the assurance she needed; thus, she never divulged the formula.

Even the world’s largest cancer research center, Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center in New York, could not convince Caisse to divulge her formula. A steady stream of doctors visited her in Canada, observing case files and talking to patients, pressuring her to sell them the formula. She was offered huge sums of money to commercialize Essiac but refused all but minimal amounts of payment for her services. Not surprisingly, Caisse was heavily persecuted and continually threatened with arrest. Finally, fearing prosecution, she closed the clinic in 1942 and went into seclusion.

Rene Caisse died in 1978, at the age of ninety. Before she died, she signed over the rights to the Essiac formula to two parties: Resperin Corporation of Toronto, to test, manufacture and distribute it, and to a long-trusted friend, Dr. Charles Brusch of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Director of the prestigious Brusch Clinic and personal physician to former President John F. Kennedy. Dr. Brusch himself had cancer of the lower bowel, which completely disappeared after Essiac treatments. Brusch once stated “ I know Essiac has curing potential. It can lessen the condition of the individual, control it, and it can cure it.

Rene Caisse never published her formula. The only person she trusted to help her make Essiac was her best friend, Mary McPherson, who knew the formula by heart. Anyone with internet access can verify the correct Essiac formula that Caisse entrusted to Mary McPherson. Simply visit “ The Rene M. Caisse Memorial Room ” at www.octagonalhouse.com and click on the “Essiac” hotlink.

“There you will see this formula:”

6 ½ cups cut up Burdock Root (cut to pea sized pieces)

For centuries, burdock root has been regarded as an effective blood purifier that neutralizes and eliminates poisons from the body. Studies have shown anti-tumor activity in burdock. Japanese scientists have isolated an anti-mutation property in burdock, which they call the “B factor . ” A memo from the WHO revealed that burdock is effective against HIV.

1 pound powdered Sheep Sorrel (including the roots)

Caisse isolated sheep sorrel leaves as the main essiac herb that dissolves cancerous tumors. Sheep sorrel contains aloe emodin, a natural substance that shows significant anti-leukemic activity. Sheep sorrel contains antioxidants, is diuretic and has been used to check hemorrhages. Be sure to include the roots of Sheep Sorrel as well, as they are essential.

¼ cup powdered Slippery Elm Bark

Slippery elm is well-known for it’s soothing properties. It reduces inflammations such as sore throad, diarrhea, and urinary problems. It contains beta-sitosterol, which has show anti-cancer activity.

1 ounce powdered Turkish Rhubarb Root

“Turkey Rhubarb” has been shown to have anti-tumor activity. It is diuretic, anti-inflammatory, and antibacterial.

The preparation of Essiac Tea is as important as the formula itself. Essiac is a decoction, not an infusion. An infusion is what people do when they put a tea bag in a cup of hot water. Generally speaking, an infusion tends to extract vitamins and volatile oils. A decoction is used to extract minerals, etc. from roots, bark or seeds by boiling for several minutes and then allowing the herbs to steep for several hours. Entrepreneurs often sell Essiac imitations in tincture form (herbs in alcohol) or in gelatin capsules; neither form is Essiac because Essiac is a decoction.

Using a stainless steel pot and lid, boil ½ cup of herb mix in one gallon of pure, unchlorinated water for 10 minutes

Turn off heat and allow herbs to steep for 12 hours.

Heat up tea to steaming, but not boiling. Allow herbs to settle a couple of minutes.

Strain off hot liquid into sterilised canning jars. The remaining pulp can be used for heating poulces.

Refrigerate tea. For long term storage use the boiling water bath canning method and store in a cool, dark, dry place.

For preventative purposes, people take one to two ounces per day diluted with about ½ cup of hot water. Be sure to drink plenty of water (at least half a gallon) each day to help flush the toxins out of your system. If you have cancer, you should take Essiac three times a day. Do not eat or drink anything (except water) one hour before to one hour after taking Essiac. Essiac tea is compatible with other alternative cancer treatments, except for Cancell. Do not take Protocel TM with Essiac tea, since they tend to neutralize each other.

Some of the best information on the internet concerning Essiac tea can be found at www.healthfreedom.info/Cancer Essiac.htm . I highly recommend that you visit their frequently asked questions page. Perhaps the best book written on this topic is called The Essiac Book and can be found at www.ReneCaisseTea.com . If you are going to use this treatment, you really should purchase the book.